Piano sounding-board.



No. 635,872. Patented Oct. 3|, I899.

C. SCMIDTLEIN.

0 SOUNDING BOARD.

plicltion filed Oct. 99, 1897.)

(No Model.)

mfnesses JIM/cw for z UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CONSTANTIN SOHMIDTLEIN, OF BERLIN, GERMANY, AS SIGNOR TO JOHANNES MOSER, OF BERLIN-SCHGNEBERG, GERMANY.

PIANBO SOUNDlNG-BOARD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 635,872, dated October 31, 1899.

I Application fil d October 29, 1897. Serial No. 656,791. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CONSTANTIN SCHMIDT- LEIN, a citizen of the Empire of Germany, and a resident of Berlin, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sounding-Boards, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part thereof.

The object of the present invention is to construct a ribless sounding-board having suflicient strength to sustain the pressure of the strings of the musicalinstrument to which it is fitted and capable of vibrating in such a way as to render a sound rich in harmonics and equally respond to each of the strings.

The annexed drawing shows my improved sounding-board in sectionthat is to say, so much as is necessary for explaining this in- Veution.

The board is formed of two layers of wood a and b, crossing one another in the direction of the grain of the wood, and it is thickest in the middle and diminishes toward its supporting-frame A. Such a construction is intended principally to afford strength, while maintaining a substantial equality of strain over the whole extent of the board.

Immediately before the place where this board has bearing on its support A the thickness of the board is diminished to a greater amount than corresponds to the gradual tapering of the whole extent of the board-that is to say, it is more steeply diminished by making in its surface a shallow groove in each face. By this means the vibratory qualities of the sounding-board are improved.

I do not claim, broadly, to make a sounding-board out of a plurality of thicknesses of wood with the grain crossing, nor to make a sounding-board thicker under the bridge; but

What I claim is 1. A ribless sounding-board the thickness of which is greatest in the center and tapers gradually thence toward a line parallel to and near to its edges where it is more sharply reduced in thickness immediately before the part adapted to be fixed on its support.

2. A ribless sounding-board composed of two layers of wood with their grain crossing one another, the thickness of which board is greatest in the center and tapers gradually thence toward a line parallel to and near its edges where each face of the board is provided with a shallow groove constituting a sharper diminution immediately before the part intended for attachment to the support of the sounding-board.

In witness whereof I have signed this specification in presence of two witnesses.

CONSTANTIN SCHMIDTLEIN.

lVitnesses:

WOLDEMAR HAUPT, HENRY HASPEB. 

